Grand View University’s IT shop has been using Milestone XProtect to manage the school’s surveillance and security, but they kept running into frustrating issues.
It’s never fun to go into your Milestone XProtect system to find specific video data, only to realize it isn’t there when you need it.
Sound familiar?
When the company was introduced to the Boring Toolbox, they were able to finally get a firm handle on their system and prevent problems from arising, instead of scrambling to react after it was too late.
Before the team at Grand View University was introduced to The Boring Toolbox, their greatest challenge with their Milestone XProtect video security system was the lack of built-in error notifications.
Neil Olson, LAN Admin at Grand View University, recalls how camera issues and missing video were such an ongoing issue, that they were discussed at every weekly security staff meeting.
Olson notes that “it’s never fun to go back and find out there’s no video available” when investigating incidents, but that it happened “one too many times.” He was frustrated that Grand View was limited to a reactive approach and sought out a solution that could help them to be more proactive about monitoring the health of their VMS so they could ensure the video would be there when they needed it.
They turned to their integration partner, Walsh Door & Security, to help find a solution for this recurring problem. Olson suspected the answer would be an expensive add-on with more functionality than they needed, so he was pleasantly surprised to learn about Walsh’s recommendation, The Boring Toolbox.
The Boring Toolbox offered a targeted solution for the exact problem they were experiencing at a price that he describes as “very, very reasonable.”
So reasonable, in fact, that Olson claims
“Purchasing The Boring Toolbox was the easiest decision the security department made all year.”
Working with their integration partners at Walsh Door & Security, the team at Grand View University implemented The Boring Toolbox’s live health monitoring notifications and immediately started seeing the benefits. Now, this small Iowa security shop has a “reliable, rock-solid system” and can operate with peace of mind knowing their system is working optimally. Read on to hear more about how Olson describes his positive experience with The Boring Toolbox.
"The Boring Toolbox allowed us be more proactive about our security system."
Olson continues: “We can actively monitor wireless cameras and even identify ongoing issues, like if a tree has grown and is blocking our wireless signals causing a camera’s connectivity to go up and down. Being able to recognize that before it becomes a bigger issue and proactively make adjustments is huge.
Proactive notifications are also the key to having a reliable, rock-solid system.
The Boring Toolbox not only sends notifications alerting you to issues about the camera being physically up, but also about its ability to record.”
Smart Notifications reduce the number of notifications you’d receive during unexpected incidents. Instead, you’ll get just one notification with everything you need to know.
Therefore providing a cleaner, more valuable notification system during standard health events.
"Before Boring, camera malfunctions were easily a weekly issue brought up in our staff meetings.
Now it's not even a topic that's ever brought up.
We also don’t have to spend our time checking cameras; troubleshooting or backtracking to try and figure out when a camera went down or why."
"We’re a small IT shop and managing the video security system is just a very small portion of what falls underneath my umbrella.
Having something that is ‘set it and forget it’ is huge. The Boring Toolbox gives me peace of mind."
“When it comes to our video security system, it’s the best money that we’ve spent all year!”
Well there you have it folks; The Boring Toolbox’s built in notification settings are part of a hands-off solution that allows you to be proactive about your camera and server health while giving you peace of mind in knowing your video will be there when you need it.
We are honored that our product can make such an incredible difference in the work lives of security administrators and we are extra grateful for incredible customers like Neil Olson who take the time to share their experience with The Boring Toolbox so we can gloat about it to you.
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